About

The Gothic Imagination is based at the University of Stirling, Scotland and provides an interdisciplinary forum for lively discussion and critical debate concerning all manifestations of the Gothic mode. Queries to Dr Timothy Jones on timothy.jones@stir.ac.uk.

2015 July

A special journal issue of Interdisciplinary Humanities
Humanities Education and Research Association
cuevae@uhd.edu
Fall 2016: Expanding the Scope of Horror
Guest Editors: Edmund Cueva and William Novak
The proposed set of essays and book reviews would have as its main objective to offer a new practical model for research and analysis as an alternative to the rigid and dichotomous methodologies often used in investigations on horror. Currently, most of the scholarship either tends to situate horror on the fringe of academic research and therefore not worthy of attention. Or,

In Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf (2011), one of the characters states that 'Werewolves are not a subject for the academe'. Though this is a little sobering if you are undertaking a PhD on werewolves, I'd suggest that the past few years have shown that this is not the case. Leslie Sconduto's Metamorphoses of the Werewolf (2008) has given a classical depth to the study of lycanthropy in literature whilst Sky's Penny Dreadful (2014-) has made their sole American character, the lupine Ethan Chandler, into a twisted version of Stoker's Quincey Morris from Dracula (1887). With werewolves

Haunted Destiny
Wendy Weber Céspedes
(University of Costa Rica)
The haunted home is probably one of the main motifs that have given rise to stories in literature. The idea that the place that should protect us as human beings turns against its inhabitants and provokes tragedy is simply a basic fear we can all identify with. Ray Bradbury depicts a similar tale in his story “The Veldt,” the account of a futuristic house rebelling against its supposed masters. Despite first impressions, the house in Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” is, in fact, presented to the reader as a haunted house,

Craig Russell, The Ghosts of Altona (Quercus: London, 2015)
by Matt Foley
Many of the nascent forms of detective fiction are well-known to be highly Gothicized, whether they be considered to be Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin stories, Charles Dickens’ plots of criminality, or the predilection of Victorian sensation fictions – typified, for instance, by the novels of Wilkie Collins – to unveil hidden injustices. The figure of the detective, surely, fundamentally rejects coincidence and chance. They instead seek to apply the logic of causation to even the most opaque of effects. Scottish cri

Making Monsters
By Naomi Richards
Margaret Atwood wrote that ‘making poison is as much fun as making a cake.’ Traditional ideas about the sources of creativity - obsession, struggle, creative wounds and all sorts of neuroses often revolve around the idea of there being Dark Materials that we are instinctively drawn to re-create. Neil Gaiman says as much in his Introduction to his short story collection Smoke and Mirrors that writing is about ‘releasing demons.’ He admits to finding stories lurking at the back of his head. For Gaiman these monsters are ideas and images he pins dow

The Enchantress of Words, Sounds and Images:
Anniversary Essays on Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823)
Edited by
Jakub Lipski
and
Jacek Mydla
Publisher: Academica Press, LLC Box 60728 Cambridge Station Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 329-0685
http://www.academicapress.com/node/240
From the Foreword by Angela Wright:
2014, the 250th birthday of Ann Radcliffe, thankfully witnessed a renewed attention to her major achievements in the literary arena. An international conference devoted to her, a prominent place accorded to her in the British Library’s exhibition ‘Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagina

Decadent Daughters and Monstrous Mothers: Angela Carter and European Gothic.
By Rebecca Munford.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013.
ISBN: 978-0-7190-7671-8
Reviewed by Donna Mitchell
Perhaps inspired by Carter’s claim that ‘[c]ontradictions are the only things that make any sense’[i], Decadent Daughters and Monstrous Mothers: Angela Carter and European Gothic sees Rebecca Munford take on the daunting task of examining the feminist dialogue in Carter’s texts through a masculinist lineage of European Gothic writers. She justifies her reasons for the unusual combination b

About

The Gothic Imagination is based at the University of Stirling, Scotland and provides an interdisciplinary forum for lively discussion and critical debate concerning all manifestations of the Gothic mode. Queries to glennis.byron@stir.ac.uk or dale.townshend@stir.ac.uk